Pete, have you heard of ASMR? It’s the tingly response you feel when you’re getting a haircut from a lady person and it’s really quiet and she’s just breathing and you’re breathing and she’s working on your bangs and staring right in your face and cutting tiny snips and, oh, that feels good. There is an entire community of people who try to give each other the tingles using role play videos and such.
When Vikram did the Blue Light walkthrough at the end of the show, holy shit I was in some kind of state. Walking through the grocery store shopping for a Memorial Day barbecue and just feeling that FEELING so strongly. So thanks for that.
So reddit has a great ASMR community: http://www.reddit.com/r/asmr
It awesome. Check out face painting videos. Brrrrrrr.

Great episode! Not really Comedy, Sex, God, but ebbed and flowed through all of those subjects. You should totally split out the Blue Light meditation bit, I really enjoyed trying it at my desk even though it’s not “real.” I was a little afraid my manager was going to come stop me though so it was a little tough to focus…

Hi Pete,
This is the first time I’ve listened to your podcast. Last night I watched Kumare, googled it today and ended up here. You asked the questions that I wanted to ask, thanks for that. Without getting too much into my background, my experience with new age spirituality, shamanic apprenticeship, etc. has been exactly what you are talking about.
There are SO many layers to this movie that I would love to talk about I don’t even know where to begin.
But I will say this, everyone wants to be seen, acknowledged, excepted, loved. And Kumare gave them this. And he created a community to to support each other. So in the long run the people who really felt that connection were not offended with the unveiling. And the people who seemed to be in it to exploit it, or approached it as a business were the ones who were out.
Great interview, thanks. I will tune in again.

This was interesting, but a few things made it hard for me to sit through. The dismissal of science as not addressing the “shitting eating and fucking” aspects was baffling to me, as was Pete’s assertion that former science students don’t revere their science professors in a similar way as a guru, an English professor, etc. If you listen to Neil DeGrasse Tyson or any of the big guys talk about their former professors, or just talk to a scientist you know about their educational experience, there will almost definitely be a teacher that transformed them and touched them in a similar way. When I listen to Carl Sagan or NDT talk about how we’re all made of stars and explain the more broad concepts of the universe as we currently understand it (I stress that part, since it’s constantly evolving) I feel every bit of that sense of wonder and awe that you talk about so often. This is all not to say that you should feel that way – we all get our sense of fulfillment and connectedness from different sources – but just to try to point out that science isn’t just a cold motionless structure of facts and data, but a means of understanding the big, beautiful, fascinating universe we’re each stitched into. You may find the means to be boring, but many people – myself included – find the scientific process to be a quite illuminating way of looking at the world, and just as capable of fueling philosophical and moral journeys quite similar to the ones you enjoy embarking upon.

Hey Pete,
I resonated with your being disappointed with Sedona/spiritual community/jewelry/clothing thing and the loneliness feeling. I had that most of my childhood and beyond then had an out of body experience at age 36 that changed my perspective on life/spiriuality. I just wrote a blog on it (16 years later). Loved the Kumare movie too by the way as it is in the same vein as my personal experience(s).

“Its not offensive to me that he’s having sex, it offensive how he’s having sex” – Pete Holmes
The idea that you would lose faith by watching how banal a Spiritual guru enjoys his sex is hilarious. An absurd visual.

The slightly-too-clever name for a negative placebo effect is ‘nocebo.’ The scary part is that while the placebo effect usually comes from something a person is seeking out, even hearing a *negative rumour* about something in your life can trigger nocebo symptoms.

So you know your brain tumor/pedophile “how much free will do we really have, maybe a lot of it is biology and how we’re wired” spiel? Well Terry Gross did a great interview with a psych professor about that very topic on one of the recent episodes of Fresh Air. Go get it! They even talk about meditation and mindfulness! It’s so up your alley.

I don’t see it on the Fresh Air website but it’s on iTunes, titled “criminologists believes violent behavior is biological”.

Great ep, free podcast! I got chills when Pete was talking about aligning his back, and Vikram said (paraphrasing here) that people born with or who develop imprefections should not be viewed as disadvanted when it comes to spirituality.

Just saw the movie so I can start the podcast. I would recommend everyone watch it even if the director was NOT being interviewed. It helps you understand how/why people fall into cults, but also how little people really need them if they just trusted themselves more. “The Great Unveiling” alone is worth the watch.